Haley Barbour on Principles & Values

Former Republican MS Governor (until 2012)

OpEd: Successful GOP chair and policy wonk

In 2002, when considering a gubernatorial campaign, besides my wife, the only other person I sought counsel from was Haley Barbour. I knew three things about him. First, he had been the most successful chairman the Republican Party had ever had.
Second, he is a policy wonk like me. And third, he's a southerner from our neighboring state of Mississippi. I was worried he would think I had lost my mind. He didn't or at least if he did, he didn't say so. He encouraged me to explore running.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 83
, Nov 15, 2010

1994: As RNC chair, gambled on big positive ideas

So many pollsters, analysts, and reporters have been confused about the 1994 election that I simply want to set the record straight. Joe Gaylord, Frank Luntz, Haley Barbour (then RNC chairman, now governor of Mississippi), and
I had a pretty good idea throughout the year that we were making a historic gamble on big issues and big, positive ideas.

In 1994, we achieved the largest one-party vote increase in a off-year election in American history.
Nine million more people voted for Republicans (and one million fewer people voted for Democrats) between the 1990 and the 1994 elections. We elected the first Republican majority in forty years and then managed the
House through a confrontation with a liberal president, a government shutdown, and a balanced budget effort that included reforming Medicare. Then we won reelection for the first time since 1928.

OpEd: Party chair & governor is strong combo for presidency

Haley Barbour is a brilliant political operative and former party chair who ran successfully for governor of Mississippi. [He thought about] the current field of presidential contenders & the primary calendar, and saw the mismatch. The strong guys in
this field are not the guys who can win the game. That suggested an opening for a guy with juice who knows the game. And being a governor is the ticket you need to play. Haley Barbour could be the Republican Jimmy Carter (circa 1976), from the inside.

Return to founders' idea of personal responsibility

The founders of our country were aware of the necessity of personal "self-government" among a democratic people. Individual freedom and personal responsibility go hand in hand. Though government policies play a part, the best guarantor of
a healthy society has always been individual citizens and their community organizations: churches, families, and charities. Though the realization that we are part of a greater community, we can revitalize and renew the values we share as a society.